Chen Liyun had luck on her side. Despite nearly drowning in the river yesterday, she had made it through the night without even a fever. Seeing that she felt well enough, and with Abao crying hard from hunger, she breastfed the baby herself.
By the time she finished nursing Abao and changed her diaper, Shushu and Changchang had already made breakfast. It was the usual peasant fare of congee, steamed buns, and pickled vegetables, the same meal eaten practically three hundred and sixty-four days a year.
One had to adapt to circumstances, so Chen Liyun focused on filling her stomach first. Afterward, she did not let Shushu stand on a stool to wash the pots and bowls. Instead, she heated some water and did the dishes herself.
In the past, the original Chen Liyun had always carried on with housework during her postpartum confinement after giving birth to both Shushu and Changchang. With that experience in mind, she felt that as long as she was careful, doing a bit of light housework would do no harm.
She could hardly rest while letting such young children work.
There was a hand pump in the yard. Once she finished in the kitchen, she pumped two buckets of water, carried them in trips to pour into the wok to heat, and washed the clothes for the three of them along with the pile of Abao’s dirty diapers.
All these chores ate up most of the morning. When it came time to make lunch, Chen Liyun merely measured out the rice and water before leaving Shushu to tend the stove fire. Her body was still too weak for heavy labor, and cold sweat was already beading across her skin from exhaustion. She had no choice but to hurry back to her room and lie down.
Rest, however, did not come easily. After barely ten minutes in bed, she called Changchang in and asked for her sewing kit. Before marrying, Chen Liyun had learned how to make quilted shoe insoles, a craft she continued to practice over the years.
The small bamboo basket the girl brought contained insoles in several sizes, some meant for the two girls, some for Chen Liyun herself, and most of all, large pairs clearly tailored for a man.
Looking at them, Chen Liyun sighed, a cold smirk touching her lips. The original owner of this body had likely jumped into the river as much out of despair over her children’s bleak future as from a genuinely broken heart.
After all, she and Qi Hongwei had chosen each other freely.
Unlike traditional arranged marriages orchestrated by parents and matchmakers, their union had grown out of mutual love and personal promises. They had once been deeply devoted, exchanging vows of eternal fidelity. It was only natural that his sudden, callous betrayal would cut so deep.
Even so, Chen Liyun pulled out the men’s insoles and handed them to Chen Chang. “Take these to the kitchen and tell your sister to toss them in the stove and burn them.”
Qi Hongwei had never liked having daughters, so neither Shushu nor Chen Chang felt any affection for him. Chen Chang took the insoles without asking a single question and headed outside. In the kitchen, the older and more perceptive Shushu even spat on the fabric before shoving it into the fire beneath the wok.
Chen Liyun had no idea, but she would not have minded even if she knew. Only a fool would teach her daughters to love a father who did not love them back. Instead, she examined the remaining insoles, suspecting they would be hard to sell. No matter how pretty they were, they went under someone’s feet where no one could see them.
When it came to selling embroidery, small items like handkerchiefs and pouches were usually the easiest to move. Larger pieces included standing screens or bridal bedding and wedding garments for special occasions.
In these modern times, country folk never used such elaborate things for weddings, and she had no idea if city people still wanted them.
She would have to wait until she recovered to go see for herself. For now, she pulled out a scrap of white cloth and began stitching.
Using only yellow and black threads, she swiftly brought a lifelike butterfly to life on the fabric. By the time Chen Chang returned after watching her older sister burn the insoles, Chen Liyun had already finished stitching the entire butterfly with practiced ease.
Chen Chang leaned against the bedside, tilting her head up and reaching out to touch it.
“A butterfly!” she cried out. “Mom, it’s a butterfly!”
It had only been a quick trial on a scrap piece of cloth to see if inheriting this era’s Chen Liyun’s memories and skills had made her lose her own craft.
Seeing that she hadn’t forgotten anything, Chen Liyun didn’t attach much importance to the piece. She bit through the thread, tied a neat knot, and handed the cloth to Chen Chang.
Chen Chang stroked and lightly scratched at the butterfly with her small hands, genuinely thinking it was real at first. After testing it a few times, she finally realized something was off. “Mom, what is this? Isn’t it a butterfly?”
Chen Liyun smiled. “It is a butterfly, an embroidered one. Is it pretty?”
Chen Chang nodded vigorously. “It’s so pretty!”
“Take it and play with it, then go find your sister in the kitchen.”
Chen Liyun needed to think carefully about what to embroider next. People didn’t seem to carry embroidered pouches anymore, but she had seen young women using handkerchiefs. She could also embroider a pair of pillow towels and pillowcases, then take them all to the town or the county seat to see if she could find a buyer.
It was the middle of the autumn harvest. Young and strong, Qi Chaoyi had nearly finished the work in his own fields, so he walked down the long dirt road to the plots belonging to his parents.
Old Qi was panting under the weight of a basket of corn ears, hauling them toward the edge of the field, while Old Madam Qi snapped the cobs from the stalks one by one. As soon as Qi Chaoyi reached the edge of the plot, Old Qi set the basket down on the ground and waved him over. “What are you standing around for? Hurry up and help me carry these over!”
Qi Chaoyi strode forward and took the basket, but he did not move to carry it. “Dad, every household is busy harvesting their crops right now. What about Eldest Brother’s land…?”
He trailed off. Old Qi frowned, offering no reply.
Hearing his voice, Old Madam Qi looked up. “Let that Chen Liyun figure it out herself! We can’t even finish our own work, so how can we spare time for her? Chaoyi, you and your wife need to hurry up and finish your own fields. Your father and I are getting old, and we’ll need your help soon enough!”
Old Qi still said nothing.
Qi Chaoyi said, “Mom, Eldest Sister-in-law just gave birth and hasn’t even finished her confinement month. What can a woman like her do on her own? In my opinion, we have to lend a hand. Even if we ignore her, there’s still Daya, Er’ya, and the little one. I’m their uncle, and you two are their grandparents. We can’t just leave them to starve, can we?”
Old Madam Qi hesitated. He had a point. Even if girls were just money-losing burdens, they still belonged to the Qi family. If they did nothing and let their granddaughters starve to death, the whole village would laugh at them. Besides, a scandal like that would make it hard for Hongwei to find another wife.
Who would dare marry their daughter into such a cruel household?
Old Qi finally spoke, but his words startled even Old Madam Qi.
“Your eldest brother and sister-in-law are getting divorced,” he said flatly. “Since that’s happening, there’s no reason for us to poke our noses into her business. As for the girls, they belong to our family. We’ll harvest the crops from their land and your eldest brother’s land, but all the grain goes to my place.”
Qi Chaoyi was stunned. “Dad, are you and Mom going to take in all three girls and raise them yourselves?”
Old Qi’s brow furrowed tightly. He thought of his three granddaughters; he had never even cast a glance at the youngest. As for Daya and Er’ya, the mere sight of them irritated him. His son Hongwei was so capable; had he fathered boys, they would surely have been little prodigies. Instead, Chen Liyun had given him nothing but three useless money-losers.
Did he really want to bring those three burdens into his home?
While Old Qi was still hesitating, Old Madam Qi vehemently protested. “No! Bringing Daya is fine, she’s at least old enough to do chores. But Er’ya and that tiny baby? I can’t look after a nursing infant. Between the housework and the fields, I’m already spinning like a top. Where would I find the energy to raise more kids?”
She glanced at Qi Chaoyi before continuing, “Chaoyi’s three boys are my own flesh-and-blood grandsons, and I couldn’t even help Fengying raise them full-time. Why would I pass up my grandsons to take care of granddaughters? Am I crazy?”
“What trouble is it to you?” Old Qi snapped. “Daya and Er’ya can both work. Just give them a bite to eat. It’s not going to kill you!”
Old Madam Qi still refused flatly. “No way! Think about it, Hongwei is getting divorced, won’t he want to remarry? If he’s saddled with three little girls, what decent girl from a good family would want to marry him and become an instant stepmother to three daughters?”
At the mention of his eldest son, Old Qi’s resolve wavered.
His eldest son, Qi Hongwei, was genuinely capable. In these times, every household was dirt poor, and farming was the only way for men to earn a living. But what about his eldest son? He had real skill, working as an accountant at a grand hotel in the county town and pulling in several hundred yuan a month. Rumor had it that an unmarried town girl had even taken a liking to him lately, which made for a fantastic match.
Qi Chaoyi recalled seeing Chen Liyun smile at the children when he stopped by her place the previous night. He knew in his heart that his sister-in-law was only clinging to life for the sake of those three kids. If his parents took them away, she might just try to kill herself again.
Compelled to step in and back up Old Madam Qi, he said, “Dad, Mom has a point. We have to consider what’s best for Big Brother.”
Old Qi was still reluctant. He had poured a great deal of hard work into his eldest son’s plots back when the crops were planted. Now that harvest time had arrived, was he supposed to just let Chen Liyun have it all?
That wouldn’t do.
“Go harvest the peanuts from your eldest brother’s two mu of land,” he finally said. “Leave the rest.”
Old Madam Qi kept silent this time. Knowing her husband’s stubborn nature, she understood it was useless to argue once he got it into his head that he couldn’t let their crops go to waste. Still, aside from the useless flaw of only bearing daughters, Chen Liyun had never been a bad daughter-in-law. Besides, Old Madam Qi had no desire to look after the children herself, and leaving all three girls for Chen Liyun to raise alone was indeed a heavy burden.
Turning to Qi Chaoyi, she said, “Listen to your father. Bring those peanuts over to our place later, but once the crops on the six mu belonging to her and the girls are harvested, leave the yield for them.”
Qi Chaoyi understood that his mother was telling him to lend a hand.
With her backing, he wouldn’t have to worry about his own wife making a scene. He agreed, carried his load of corn to the edge of the field, and emptied the basket. Setting the basket down, he headed back toward his own plot.
Chen Liyun had rested enough and was getting out of bed to cook when her thoughts turned to their land. Abao had just been born, so she did not have an allocation, but Chen Shu and Chen Chang did, having received theirs three years ago. With two mu per person among the four of them, they had eight mu in total.
Harvesting crops from eight mu of land was simply impossible for any woman on her own, let alone her. Yet leaving it was not an option; it was the food she and her three children depended on.
Chen Lihong immediately came to mind, closely followed by Qi Chaoyi. If she split the eight mu down the middle, asking Chen Lihong’s family to help harvest one half and Qi Chaoyi the other, she could share the yields. After turning over the state grain quota, they could split the remaining harvest fifty-fifty. Surely Fang Dahai and Wang Fengying would agree to such an arrangement.
After all, selling grain was how rural folks earned money these days.
Chen Lihong had been kind to her, and Qi Chaoyi giving her money counted as a favor as well. Giving each household half of the grain would serve as repayment. Splitting it evenly between them would also keep Old Qi and Old Madam Qi from complaining.
Besides, if a fight ever broke out, she remembered her second sister-in-law, Wang Fengying, was not someone to be pushed around.
As for herself, the half left over should be enough to feed her and the three children. When it came to money, she would just have to find another way to earn it.